FAMU 10 for $10 challenge goes viral

Cecka Rose Green thought she had a pretty good idea for helping alma mater, Florida A&M University: Give $10 to the school and challenge 10 other Rattlers to follow suit.

It turns out it was more than a good idea. Rose Green’s “10 for $10” social media campaign, begun Aug. 25, quickly went viral.

In its first seven days the challenge raised more than $51,000 for the FAMU Foundation, and that doesn’t count checks that were being mailed in and had yet to be counted.

“We’re encouraging people to donate in memory of fallen Rattlers,” Rose Green said. “We want to take this into perpetuity, getting people to give every month.”

Rose Green, working with the blessing of FAMU President Elmira Mangum and Thomas Haynes, vice president for university advancement, believes the challenge campaign can produce $1 million by May, when FAMU’s National Alumni Association holds its annual meeting.

Rose Green, communications director for the Florida Housing Finance Corp., clearly knows a thing or two about using social media. She’s posted two short videos promoting the challenge, in addition to creating a separate Facebook page for it: FAMU 10 for $10.

The way she is pitching it, the gift amounts to one lunch at a restaurant.

“Can you afford to give up one lunch?” she said. “I think people want to help out, and this is a doable way to do it.”

More than 1,700 individuals had taken the challenge by Labor Day, with one person contributing $5,000 – far more than the $10 request.

Carmen Cummings, director of the Office of Alumni Affairs, believes Rose Green’s campaign, coming on the heels of wildly popular national “Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS,” is resonating deeply with Rattlers across the country.

Cummings and Rose Green liken it to the grassroots campaigns initiated by Barack Obama that led to him getting elected and re-elected president of the United States.

“I’ve always been an advocate of campaigns of this nature,” Cummings said. “It’s one thing to say you love FAMU, it’s another to be an advocate. If you truly love FAMU, you have to walk it, talk it, love it, live it.”

Rose Green admits that she didn’t know what to expect when she started the 10 for $10 challenge last week.

“I’m just overwhelmed at where this has gone and I’m so hopeful of where it is going,” she said. “It’s not about me. It’s really about the university.”